From a production point of view, the first Star Trek spacecraft was featured in the late 1960s science-fiction show Star Trek, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) which was introduced in 1966. That show introduced a number of other vessels of the fictional Federation and especially aliens, one of the famous of these was the Klingon D-7 starship. Original studio models of these are held at the U.S. Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum,[1] and the show is famous for inspiring engineering and scientists, and is also known for multi-cultural crews.

A few other well-known related starships are the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), from Star Trek: The Next Generation of the 1980s and 1990s, spawning the TNG-era trilogy of films and shows. This era produced many new Star Trek ships and spacecraft, and for the first time started in the 1990s a transition from miniature models to computer generated images. Many of the models for authentic starship models are a popular item at auction, and can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some well-known Star Trek spacecraft include:

One of the most well-known non-Federation ships is the "Bird of Prey", which was crewed by Captain Kirk and his crew in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This also provides an example of the creative alien spaceship design, as the film featured an extremely large black cylinder for the "whale probe", unlike the typical "warp drive" ships like the Enterprise.

The Star Trek universe also included a large number of shuttlecraft, which although small compared to the large vessels was typical place for dialogue between 2–3 characters in a large number of episodes of these shows.